Testing new 22 caliber slug design

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thomasair

thomasair

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Nov 6, 2016
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Colorado, United States
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Yesterday, I began testing a new shape 22 caliber slug I made for my swage press.

I've been shooting around 8-10k slugs per month for a very long time, and paying 20c each is not doable for me. Buying lead wire from Nielsen... I can swage slugs in between other processes in my shop at around 2c each. That's manageable. The ability to make the dies, myself also allows me to tailor things to the barrels I have access to.

The slugs that I've been making for a long time have given me great accuracy and predictability in the wind, but are around .138 bc and .223 caliber. That's not bad, but not as good as it can be.

The goal for something new was to equal the accuracy and predictability while increasing the wind resistance. Also, I wanted to use typical airgun sizes instead of the .223" due to current world BR rules that limit slug size to .218.

These new slugs have a much more spherical nose and a longer rebated boat tail to allow them to be made in a single step swage operation.

After finding a barrel that shot them well and verifying they have the accuracy potential I was looking for...I set up 2 chronos 49y apart to get some near and far velocity numbers to calculate a bc.

I was able to get great accuracy at 900 or 960 so that's where I sampled them. At 900 fps I averaged a BC of .195. At 960 fps, the BC went down to .165. I used a 15 shot average.

I know that my 2 chronographs read slightly different and I couldn't recall which was which so I set up the gun to run the 40g altaros slugs as a reference at 900fps. The Altaros averaged a G1 BC of .198. BC claims from Alraros are .210, so that probably meant that my slightly faster reading chrono was near the muzzle.

All in all I was very happy. Great accuracy so far, and I'm not leaving anything on the table as far as wind resistance compared to other slugs.

Here's a few 25 shot groups at 50y. The wind was actually pretty strong and indecisive at around 7-15 mph.

I look forward to seeing how I progress with these over time. Over the next few months I'll be able to get a better picture of their real world performance and hopefully some customer feedback as well.

Mike
 
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Whether airgunners realize it or not, we are witnessing the slow death of the old 2-S ogive slugs..

You've got to give Altaros credit for showing us how much BC was left on the table.

Now that Corbin (and yourself) are able to swage a more affordable option, this gives the swager total quality control with weight and hollow point options.

I've been swaging my own slugs for years and can't imagine doing it any other way.
 
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woogie_man said:
Impressive Thomas! What press are you using for the slugs, and any pictures of the dies?

Trying to sell a gun or two so I can grab a Corbin set up, though honestly wish I could use the reloading equipment I already have.
Click to expand...
I use the RCE Sea Girt 3 press. I made the dies...and they don't look like anything special on the outside. It's the inside that matters....which can't be seen.
 
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